Holocaust Remembrance Day

Your contact point

Searching for faces that disappeared in the Shoah:

A year ago, Zvi Lander participated in a ceremony in the town of Chelm, in Poland. There, a local history teacher gave him a recently uncovered treasure: 180 photographs that were discovered hidden in a wall of her home when it was torn down for renovations. The pictures show a large Jewish family, along with many friends.

After months of searching for clues as to the identity of the family, someone noticed, in one of the photographs, a sign above a laundromat bearing the name Boden.

Using the lists of testimonies archived at Yad Vashem, the album was delivered to Pini Beeri and Riki Ariel, the sons of Pearale Boden Berezowsky, who was one of two siblings to survive the Holocaust. The men delivered the book to their mother, six hours before her death.

From the photographs, remaining sister Marisha Weikselfish identified her brother, parents, and other relatives – all of whom perished.

Family members said that the brother, Shlomo Boden, had informed the family about hiding the album in the wall, along with silverware and silver dishware. However, the survivors did not return to the house to retrieve the photographs after the war and the photographs remained hidden for 65 years.

Many of the pictures depict classmates of the photographer, who were unrecognized by the surviving family members.

The story appeared in a column by Nira Rousso, in a supplement to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Ynet now presents 100 of the photographs, containing people who have not been identified. Do you recognize one of them? If so, please send us a red-mail and let us know.